For how liberal and tolerant college campuses tend to be, they sure aren’t very welcoming of free speech. In an opinion column for the Washington Post, Catherine Rampbell writes:
Free speech.
Rampbell highlights the situation at Wesleyan University where the student government voted to cut funding for the Wesleyan Argus, one of their student newspapers. What awful crime did the paper commit? They dared to publish a conservative op-ed:
Rampbell points out that the op-ed was not racist, but that people still went nuts to not only criticize the op-ed, but to steal and destroy the newspaper issue it was printed in. Stascavage told Rampbell that one student screamed at him, and that others muttered “racist” as he walked by.
Unfortunately, the paper’s editors caved in and issued an apology. But a petition still circulated to defund the paper, which turned out to happen. Not even the school promising to stand by Stascavage and the paper could help the situation. The veteran has thought about transferring to the more conservative Liberty University.
Stascavage shouldn’t have to transfer to a conservative school to feel like his views are welcome. What’s even worse is that ” he’d specifically sought a community that might challenge his views.” It’s a shame then that the liberals at Wesleyan couldn’t grasp that same sentiment.
If there’s any take away from this incident at Wesleyan University, in 2015 nonetheless, it’s that freedom of speech, and also freedom of the press, go to die at these liberal campuses.
Rush says it well in their 1982 Subdivisions: “Conform or be cast out.”
